On Tuesday, Neeraj Chopra, the defending champion of men’s javelin throw at the Olympic Games made a season’s best throw of 89.34m in his first attempt during the qualification round thereby advancing confidently to the finals.
By throwing effortlessly beyond the automatic qualifying mark of 84m in his opening throw, just like he did at Tokyo Olympics this 26-year old claimed top position in Group B.
Besides being his second best career effort, this remarkable feat eased any concerns about Chopra’s fitness as he revealed earlier that he has been grappling with an adductor niggle ahead of these Games; currently, his personal best is at 89.94m achieved in 2022.
Jena Kishore became another Indian participant who was block from making it to the 12-man final after a poor performance measuring only 80.73 meters on Thursday.
Arshad Nadeem from Pakistan, who is also a reigning Commonwealth Games champion, also moved into the finals with a throw measuring 86.59 meters for group B. For the same group, Grenada’s veteran Anderson Peters qualified with a long throw measured at 88.63 meters.
His performance lasted only minutes but it was arguably the most potent and captivating within that time frame among all other athletes participating that day—a true case of “he came; threw and conquered.”
Earlier today Jena placed ninth in Group A qualification round when he had an under par performance throwing only for distance of eighty points seventy three metres which denied him a place among finalists. His start was eighty points seventy three metres then there was foul on second attempt while his third attempt reached eighty one point twenty one metres.
In group A Julian Weber (Germany) took lead by launching it first at mark of 87.76m while former world champion Julius Yego (Kenya) with distance covered of 85.97 m and Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Jakub Vadlejch (Czech Republic) who managed a throw of 85.63 meters completed the top three.
The fourth athlete to exceed the automatic qualification mark of 84m was Toni Keranen (Finland) after his 85.27m throw.
